Lacey's Visit - Roadtrip - Day 2

Saturday, June 27 – After a breakfast with interesting food and good company (the other guests and hosts) spent chatting about random little things from why sometimes its hard to peel hard boiled eggs to ancestry, Scottish history, and how everyone in my family has LLL initials, we were off on Day 2 of our Highlands and Islands roadtrip! Lacey was driving (she actually drove from this point on, so there’s no need for me to mention that anymore…) and we crossed over the Skye Bridge and onto the Isle of Skye. We immediately stopped at the Tourist Information Center, bought some postcards, and mailed them! Then we continued up and around the Island, stopping here and there for photos, until arriving at Dunvegan Castle. We toured the castle and some of its grounds and gardens, learning about its history as a fortress and also as home to the MacLeod clan leaders. (For more information, check out their website: www.dunvegancastle.com). We took several pictures of the castle and grounds, but unfortunately, cameras were not allowed into the restored interior.

There were some really interesting things to see, too! Like a real dungeon where they threw prisoners (only way in was a hole in the roof, no way out), several hidden stairways and passages, and the kitchens! After a visit to the giftshop, we were on our way again. I started taking fewer pictures the further we drove. And not because it was less beautiful, but because I found that the camera just wasn’t capturing the beauty of the island. The size of the mountains, the rocky ground, all covered in green, or trees, spotted everywhere with sheep! (It was easier to capture with video, so make sure you check out some of the videos posted on my photo site.)

We were to arrive at 430 for the first of three ferry’s that we’d be taking on this trip, and weren’t sure about the availability of food between Skye and that evening’s bed and breakfast, so we stopped at the grocery store and bought some food for snacks and dinner, before heading to the ferry. It turned out that the ferry port had a snack bar, several shops, and a kilt-clad gentleman playing bagpipes, so we ate our picnic, bought coffees, and enjoyed his music until it was time to board the boat.
On board the ferry, we road on the top deck, of course. The view was amazing, the cliffs and mountains of the island are perhaps best viewed from the water, and not from on the island itself.
Once back on the mainland, we began the drive to Strontian, where we’d be spending our second night. We were driving mostly on single lane roads with passing places by this point, but had gotten pretty used to it, and most other drivers also seemed to be familiar with the roads and were courteous. It did make the drive to the Bed and Breakfast take slightly longer than estimated, though, since driving on one lane winding roads tends to be slow-going, but that’s better for enjoying scenery, anyway!

When we arrived at Otterburn, our 4-star B&B (and it was Much nicer than the one the night before… so nice, really! Cute, charming, clean… I would have stayed here for days!) We arrived around 830pm again, there was a note on the door saying “Lacey and Laurie, please come in.” We walked in to find a longer note on a table explaining that they (Mike and Cheryl, our hosts) had to run out, but that they would be back by 930 and explained several things about the house, where our room and keys were, etc. So we went to the room, used their internet to start some pictures uploading, and then explored their yard a little. There was a big hill in their backyard that we climbed up, giving us a great view of the lake across the street and the surrounding country areas. On our way back in, we met the other couple that was staying at the house (only two guest rooms here, both ensuite!), a much older couple traveling up from near London on holiday. They were very nice and told us that they’d also gotten a note upon arrival, and that it seemed to them that Mike was in charge and that they hadn’t even met Cheryl yet! But, shortly after we got back inside and got settled, Mike and Cheryl returned and we got to meet her. It was clear that Mike was in charge of the B&B, which we all thought was unusual, but since he did such a wonderful job, none of us really questioned it any further, and Cheryl seemed pleasant, too. We asked him about the ferry we needed to catch the next morning – how long it would take to get there, and which one we’d need to catch if we wanted to catch a second ferry later that day at 430pm from a different location on the island. He told us that we should aim for the earliest ferry in the day, so we’d need to leave by 9am. We felt so bad that we needed to get to bed early, we wanted to stay and enjoy this place longer, but tomorrow was another day of travel and sightseeing, so to bed we went.